Mobile device enablement of universal prepaid cards

An example embodiment may involve receiving a representation of a location of the mobile device as provided by way of location-determining hardware of the mobile device; transmitting, to the mobile device, representations of one or more merchants with physical presence within a radius of the location; receiving, from the mobile device, representations of a gift card request, a first amount, and a merchant, where the merchant was selected from the one or more merchants; transmitting, to the mobile device, a digital gift card branded by the merchant, where the digital gift card is associated with a code; receiving, from a point-of-sale device associated with the merchant, a request to validate the code, where the code was obtained by the point-of-sale device scanning the code as displayed by the mobile device; and transmitting, to the point-of-sale device, validation of the code.